The Government of Jharkhand is making numerous efforts to ensure that children are not deprived of the opportunity to learn during the lockdown. In this regard, SATH- E (Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital in Education) which is an initiative of NITI Aayog in collaboration with Piramal School of Leadership (PSL) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is enabling the continuity of education during the pandemic.
DigiSath was launched during the lockdown to provide study material in audio- visual and text form to 1.25 lakh teachers and 12 lakh students. Education officials, teachers, parents and children are also connected through video conferencing and Whatsapp groups.
Other means of communication like radio and television programs are being used in places where internet reach is low.
In the past three years, Jharkhand has been through various levels of systematic changes including school consolidation, teacher rationalisation, curriculum remediation, monitoring and accountability and capacity building of educators. The program is enabling the students to build foundation skills and also leading to active participation of community members in school activities.
The State has also witnessed great transformation under this program. The school reorganisation initiative ensures an equitable distribution of teachers and resources amongst students. More than 7000 teachers were identified and relocated through rationalisation campaigns, thereby decreasing teacher requirement by 4500 teachers. So far, 4500 schools have been reorganized in the State resulting in cost saving of Rs 400 croroes.
“Considering the lockdown, Jharkhand government is successfully ensuring the learning of children virtually with DigiSath. Around 1.1 lakh teachers are teaching 12 students online using Whatsapp. All the study material has been prepared class and level wise and we aim to reach 75 per cent through the Internet. The rest belong to areas with low internet density and for which we are using radio and television,” said Jharkhand Education Project Council Director, Uma Shankar Singh.
“We are extremely proud to be partners with NITI Aayog and BCG in the SATH- E program which is supporting equitable distribution of 6,85,000 teachers and academic resources for 1,72,50,000 students in 2,08,000 schools in MP, Jharkhand and Odisha. Teams have been deployed on the field to build capacity, work closely with the teachers and also ensure smooth adoption of technology across the states. Digital content created for teachers and students in the past three years has greatly enhanced learning,” said Ritu Jain, Director- State Transformation Program, PSL.
Jharkhand is one of the three states where SATH- E initiative is operating along with Madhya Pradesh and Odisha were similar activities are taking place. The program focuses on developing high quality, scalable and sustainable education and also aims to engage multiple stakeholders so that it can serve as a model for replication across the country.
